Knowing God

As Bible believers, we place a lot of emphasis on belief in right doctrine,
but if the perception of what God wants from us is wrong, then we are
in
danger of being rejected. It's possible to believe the right things as
per , e.g. the questions in a CBM type test, and yet never know God ,
and not
understand what he really wants of us. We can say that to love God and
our neighbor are the 2 great commandments, but if we don't know how, then
such head knowledge is worthless.

The one talent man thought he knew God, but in the end was assigned a
place in the outer darkness. He thought he knew what God wanted of him,
but he
had it all wrong.. He never knew God, so God never knew him. The one talent
man thought that God was "a hard man" and was in fear of Him.
In a way we bring judgment on ourselves now. The 2 and 5 talent servants
had in a sense already entered in to the joy of their Lord because they
did not believe God to be hard. and I believe they would have known God
and the joy of knowing God while they lived. and they were able to take
that joy and spread the gospel to others and increase the Godliness in
their own characters.

Perhaps there is a connection to the 2 fish and 5 loaves that multiplied
and fed people in a literal sense, to the 2 and 5 talents which multiplied
and fed people in a spiritual sense, feeding people with the true word
of God.. and not the false word that believes God to be hard. and causes
no increase
in the spread of the gospel, but maintains the wrong understanding of God.

The one talent man didn't understand what God wanted of him. His comment
that he knew God to gather where He has not scattered and therefore buried
his talent makes no sense at all. it shows he completely misunderstood
the gospel and what God wanted him to do. It is very dangerous to enforce
things we think God requires of us when he does not. It reminds me of
those who are adamant that God would want us to get dressed us for Him
as if we were visiting the queen..as if God only sees our outward clothing
on a Sunday morning. God has never said that, in fact he says the opposite
and tells us not to make a show of outward adorning, but some just don't
"get it". they understand that fancy ornate churches are not
required, but make rules about the fancy adorning of our miserable bodies.
Does God care if we have a shiny length of fabric tied around our necks?
Just as fancy church buildings are not what God wants, so is our outward
adorning, clothes do not impress, it's the state of our minds, our love,
compassion and knowing what really is important to God that matters. If
we believe that God is "hard" and requires things he does not,
then to us God will be hard because we never knew Him.

There are so many cases of people judging by what they see, and judging
wrongly. Or by being told a distorted version of things but not knowing
really what has happened. Only God judges rightly, and the more we know
God, the more we can make just and righteous judgments. But if we a basing
them on a wrong perception of what God wants from us then we are in danger
of ending up with the hypocrites in the outer darkness where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.